Spike Lee Controversy May Have Inspired Fort Greene Graffiti

Graffiti painted on the home next to Spike Lee’s old address at 165 Washington Park in Fort Greene.

Nick Pinto/The Wall Street Journ

On Tuesday evening, director Spike Lee delivered an expletive-laden critique of gentrification in New York City—especially in his old Brooklyn neighborhood, Fort Greene—during a Pratt Institute lecture.

Mr. Lee’s pointed remarks—”You can’t just come in the neighborhood and start bogarting,” he said in a more family-friendly excerpt—drew plenty of criticism and praise.

By Friday, someone made their own statement in a medium appropriate to the discussion: graffiti. “Do The Right Thing,” the name of Mr. Lee’s most well-known film, was spray-painted on the brownstone at 164 Washington Park, right across the street from Fort Greene Park. It is next-door to the home Mr. Lee once owned.

Graffiti painted on the home next to Spike Lee’s old address at 165 Washington Park in Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn.

According to excerpts published by New York magazine, Mr. Lee said the following during the lecture:

I mean, they just move in the neighborhood. You just can’t come in the neighborhood. I’m for democracy and letting everybody live but you gotta have some respect. You can’t just come in when people have a culture that’s been laid down for generations and you come in and now s*** gotta change because you’re here?

This week, photographer Spencer Platt captured images of the neighborhood.

People walk past the offices of director Spike Lee in the Fort Greene on Thursday.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A shopper stands outside a discount store in Fort Greene.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

People sit in a cafe in Fort Greene.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A street scene from Fort Greene.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A dilapidated home stands next to a spruced-up building in Fort Greene.